Yakar founder Mickey Rosen dies

December 8, 2008

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Rabbi Michael "Mickey" Rosen, who founded a network of progressive Orthodox synagogues in Israel, has died.

Rosen died Sunday night from injuries sustained three weeks ago in a fall. He was in his late 50s and suffered from mitochondrial myopathy, but it is unclear whether it was related to his death. He spent his final weeks in a coma.

In 1992, Rosen founded the Yakar-Center for Tradition and Creativity in Jerusalem, which gained popularity with its combination of tuneful prayer services and commitment to social action. A second synagogue later opened in Tel Aviv.

Rosen was ordained in 1973 and earned a doctorate from London University in 1994, according to a brief biography on the Yakar Web site. He was the author of "The Quest for Authenticity," a book about the Chasidic master Rabbi Simcha Bunim.

His brother, Rabbi David Rosen, chairs the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.

Rosen was buried Monday in Jerusalem. He is survived by his wife and six children.

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Gary Wexler

12/08/08 01:56 PM

Rabbi Mickey Rosen will always have a deep place in my heart. I will never forget the first time I walked into Yakar, in Jerusalem, about ten years ago on an Erev Shabbat. I had not heard about Yakar and someone took me without without explaining what I was about to experience. As the congregation finished the first prayers, the room began to fill up with hundreds of people. Every seat was taken and all that remained was standing room. People began to fill in along the walls and outside on the patio, congregating around the open windows. Suddenly, the entire place quieted. There was a few seconds of absolute silence and then hundreds of people in one voice began to sway and sing, offering up a Yedid Nefesh prayer unlike any I had ever heard. My soul, my heart, my Jewish identity was swept up into its rhythm and movement unlike anything I had every experienced. I thought I had finally come to Jerusalem and reached the l’malah heaven we have all been promised. The Kabbalat Service continued at the same raptured pace and level to the Lecha Dodi, where on the final verses of the prayer the melody changed, again with hundreds as one voice, sweeping me up even higher, until tears came to my eyes.

As the years went on, I returned to Yakar many times, and came to know Mickey Rosen, I realized the singing at Yakar was a manifestation of Mickey’s soul. His soul gave forth to much of the movement today that has brought soulful, ecstatic singing and moments to Jewish prayer. His soul will be present wherever anyone is swept up into t’fila that brings you to reach the angels.

May his memory be for a blessing.
Gary Wexler

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